“How, then, hash you heard the signal four times?”
The query appeared slightly to puzzle Chakra.
“O—a—de signal fo’ time,” stammered he, after a pause of reflection. “Wa, ye see, a hear de fuss time in ma sleep—den de second time he wake me—de third a got to ma feet; and when de fo’th—”
The Jew—either satisfied with the explanation, or too much hurried to hear the end of it—interrupted Chakra at “de fo’th.”
“It ish no time for talk when Mount Welcome ish in flames. You knowsh that, I supposhe?”
Chakra hesitated, as if considering whether to make a negative or affirmative reply.
“Of course you knowsh it. I needn’t haf ashked. Who wash it? Adam hash been there. Wash it him?”
“Ole Adam hab a hand in dat ere bizness, a b’lieve.”
“You knowsh it, Shakra; and I knowsh another that hash had a hand in it. That ish not my bishness, nor what I hash come here about. There ish worse than that.”
“Wuss, Massr Jake?” inquired the myal-man, with an air of feigned surprise. It might have been real. “Wuss dan dat? Hab de young man no come back?”